Better times have immigrants returning to India, China

Indian, Chinese immigrants go home for better life

Published 6:30 am, Monday, March 2, 2009

RALEIGH, N.C. — A Duke University researcher says the United States may no longer be the world’s only land of opportunity.

According to a study released Monday, immigrants from India and China are returning to their home countries for better jobs and a more luxurious standard of living.

Vivek Wadhwa, a professor in Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, co-authored the study, in which researchers interviewed 1,200 highly educated Indian and Chinese professionals who returned to their countries after living in the United States. Most returned for better job prospects and pay.

Wadhwa said the growing job market in those countries, visa backlogs and anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States are pulling immigrants back to the places they once thought they had left for good.

“For the whole of American history, immigrants have come here on one-way tickets, whether it was on the Mayflower or from India,” Wadhwa said.

“Now we’re exporting our critical talent. The message here is we better wake up. We have this arrogance as if we’re still the only great place in the world.”

Immigration critics, however, say the departure of professionals from around the world will only help American job seekers, especially in a time of rising unemployment.